Selling Guidelines - Rich Cornelius

Before You Sell...Here are some Helpful Tips

Guidelines to Selling a Home in the Tampa bay area: Rich Cornelius under-promises AND over-delivers. Think about it - who can really guarantee they will sell your home in 7 days? Who can guarantee it will be a stress-free sale? Before you partner with a Real Estate professional to sell your home, make sure they "practice what they preach". There are many part-time and some-time Realtors out there and in this market, TIME IS MONEY!

Before you pick up the phone... Even before you ask the first question, you can save yourself some valuable time by doing a bit of initial research - visit a firm's or agent's web site. Pretend you are a buyer...What kind of exposure do they offer? Using typical Buyer search "keywords", do they pop at the top of your search? Remember, a listing in the MLS is standard and will show up on several internet websites due to the relationships the websites have (i.e., Realtor.com and other similar sites that host MLS database).Test the listing agent you're contemplating on listing your house with. Call and email the agent to see how responsive he/she is on returning your calls and emails. Do they pick up their phone often, or do they let the call go to voicemail - remember, this is how they will treat your prospective buyers. His/her response time is crucial to successfully selling your home. This is the person who the buyers and buyers agents will call to see your house.
Inquire about a Marketing Plan designed specifically for your property. What kind of marketing techniques they will be using to sell your house? Inquire about the effectivity of these techniques. A good Realtor will adjust his marketing techniques and methods to the property being sold. Ask to see how long their listings stayed on the market.
Request a preview of past and current listings they have had on the MLS. Review how well the property description is written, how detailed the information they have put in. Poor grammar and lack of "descriptive" words will kill your sale before it even gets off the ground. Despite seeming minor, good driving directions to each listing is paramount. How well is the property photographed? How many photos were used?
Ask for at least 3 references: ask how often they got a feedback while their properties were on the market.
Please don't just sign with the least expensive agent you can find. What you pay for is generally what you get! Focus on the results and not the price. It doesn't do you any good if your property sits neglected by Buyers for 6 months. It will cost you more in the end - I can show you the numbers. Most likely, another agent (a buyers agent) will be involved in the sale of your house. Inquire about the co-brokerage structure -how much of the commission is he/she splitting with the buyer's agent? Hint: In a slow market you need to maximize the incentive for a buyer's agent (3% or more) to show your property. If the commission is LOW, it may not SHOW.

Before You Sell...Here are some Helpful Tips